Andrew Suknaski

Poet and visual artist Andrew Suknaski was born on a homestead near Wood Mountain, Saskatchewan, in July 1942, to Julia (Karasinski) and Andrew Suknaski, Sr. His first collection was Wood Mountain Poems (1976), edited by Al Purdy, followed by The Ghosts Call You Poor (1978), and In the Name of Narid (1981). Ghosts won Suknaski the Canadian Authors Association Poetry Award in 1979. His other books include Montage for an Interstellar Cry (1982) and Silk Trail (1985). Suknaski’s poems have appeared in such anthologies as Number One Northern (1977) and Studio One: Stories Made for Radio (1990). He has worked as a researcher for the National Film Board, contributed to such films as Grain Elevator (1981) by Charles Konowal, and The Disinherited (1985) by Harvey Spak. In 1978, Spak made a documentary of Suknaski entitled Wood Mountain Poems. Suknaski’s Polish and Ukrainian heritage, his concern for First Nations, and the people and place of Wood Mountain feature strongly in his realist poetry, and his work continues to be studied across Canada. In 2006, Regina’s Hagios Press reissued Suknaski’s Wood Mountain Poems as a thirtieth anniversary edition.